Tasted any recently? The only one I really bought in any quantity was the 08 Les Bournais. I had a few last year and then another a few weeks ago that seemed to be gaining delightful focus. I planned to drink my last bottle in the next few weeks. Although it would be interesting to see it age for several more years, I just don't have the space.

Tasted any recently? The only one I really bought in any quantity was the 08 Les Bournais. I had a few last year and then another a few weeks ago that seemed to be gaining delightful focus. I planned to drink my last bottle in the next few weeks. Although it would be interesting to see it age for several more years, I just don't have the space.

Not too recently: been away from our cellar for the last 4 months and just recently got back. What I've heard recently, though, makes me think that many of those '08s are hitting their stride now.

Mark Lipton wrote:Not too recently: been away from our cellar for the last 4 months and just recently got back.

Oh yes, you've been in New Zealand. Welcome back, and just in time for your second summer!

Thanks! And keep this in mind when your first sabbatical opportunity arises. You've got much better reasons to decamp for parts European than we do/did! I'll bet that Heidelberg has a decent Poli Sci department or something close enough to satisfy scrutinizing administrators.

With this revisit, I find it easier to place this in context. I can more easily discern the Chenin Blanc fruit beneth the mousse and I find the acidity and raciness required for the making of bubblies suit the grape. Beyond that, on the nose there's plenty of green apples, citrus fruit, chalk and various other rocks, as well as hints of brioche, making for fairly complex aromatics. The overtly yeasty character I noticed last time is gone, so this is really shining now. The palate has a wonderful cut and the freshness of sour apples, with an herbal, almost minty essence, but to be quite honest, if I compare it to the vintage Champagnes I've been drinking recently, it matches their elegance but not quite their depth. However, it competes quite nicely with non-vintage Champagnes, especially for its price, and the only reason I'm comparing it to vintage stuff is because it says Huet on the label - in its own right, it's an interesting, delicious, refreshing wine! Since Huet makes such age-worthy Vouvrays, I'll have to age my other bottles and see how much depth they gain and then play the Match Game again against the vintage Champagnes.

Chaim, I envy you. I drank my 2005 Huet Bruts long ago, and my 2002s, both fine years. I wouldn't compare them to Champagne or anything else, but they stand out as wonderful Vouvray petillants, especially considering the sea of year after year of drab Loire sparklers. I have a hard time finding good sparkling Vouvrays. It's so seldom I run into a drinkable one that a few weeks ago I almost fell in love with a fifteen buck bottle of NV Christophe Thorigny Vouvray Brut. My wife and I drank a second one tonight and, maybe it's bottle variation, but this one came across as just acceptable fizz, with discernible Chenin flavors but nothing to get excited about. Mind you, I'm a Vouvray freak, so I'd like Vouvray sparkers to be great, like the secs, demi-secs, and moelleux, but I'd settle for just good. If anyone has any recommendation for good Vouvray sparklers, or other Loire Chenin sparklers, that are on the market now, please chime in. I'll rush out and buy them.

Clint Hall wrote:Chaim, I envy you. I drank my 2005 Huet Bruts long ago, and my 2002s, both fine years. I wouldn't compare them to Champagne or anything else, but they stand out as wonderful Vouvray petillants, especially considering the sea of year after year of drab Loire sparklers. I have a hard time finding good sparkling Vouvrays. It's so seldom I run into a drinkable one that a few weeks ago I almost fell in love with a fifteen buck bottle of NV Christophe Thorigny Vouvray Brut. My wife and I drank a second one tonight and, maybe it's bottle variation, but this one came across as just acceptable fizz, with discernible Chenin flavors but nothing to get excited about. Mind you, I'm a Vouvray freak, so I'd like Vouvray sparkers to be great, like the secs, demi-secs, and moelleux, but I'd settle for just good. If anyone has any recommendation for good Vouvray sparklers, or other Loire Chenin sparklers, that are on the market now, please chime in. I'll rush out and buy them.

Clint, No great surprises here, but -- aside from the obvious choices of Huet and Foreau -- there's also the very lovely sparkling Vouvray of François Pinon, which is a QPR winner, too. I adore his non-dosage version, which is alas much harder to find.

Rahsaan, no, I wasn't aware that most Vouvray is sparkling wine. Who drinks the stuff? Some of it, I know, is good, but I've had more bad ones than good even though I've aimed most of my purchases at the high end. Even Huet sometimes does clinkers in the sparkling department.

I find the nose intriguing. Beneath the spicy/wooly aromas of Chenin approaching maturity, I think I spy a hint of honeyed botrytis, but whatever is going on in there, the aromatics have a piercingly intellectual charm. The palate is sweet, of course, rich and hedonistic without, for me, going over the top, with a strand of botrytis funk that is even more obvious than it was on the nose.

Yet another dessert wine I prefer to Sauternes (even if I did have it with spicy Asian food, and even if, like Sauternes, it's not exactly bulging with acidity), but not enough for a repeat purchase. (May 5, 2012)

Clint Hall wrote:Rahsaan, no, I wasn't aware that most Vouvray is sparkling wine. Who drinks the stuff?

The same people who drink the rest of the crap that is the overwhelming majority of French wine, I'm guessing mostly local French folks and maybe some surrounding Euro shops stocking cheap crap.

I don't know that I've ever had a 'clunker' from Huet Petillant. Do you remember the particular wine? Certainly they show vintage variation and not all bottles show well at all times. But hey, no one is forcing you to like the stuff.